


Out in Daylight

by Jingle



Category: Steven Universe (Cartoon)
Genre: Action, Canon-Typical Violence, Episode Related, Family Feels, Gem Fusion, Gen, Guilt, Regret
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-19
Updated: 2017-04-19
Packaged: 2018-10-20 23:06:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,136
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10672659
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Jingle/pseuds/Jingle
Summary: "Uh, [the mission] went fine. You know, the usual - fighting monsters, sharing emotions." - Steven Universe, RocknaldoSome 'missing' scenes taking place during and after the Rocknaldo episode, exploring a mission, a failed attempt at fusion, and the aftermath.





	Out in Daylight

**Author's Note:**

  * For [MiraMira](https://archiveofourown.org/users/MiraMira/gifts).



“Don’t worry, Steven. Bloodstone will understand, eventually,” Garnet said, and Steven gave her a shaky smile.

“Yeah?”

Garnet nodded, and Steven echoed the motion. Bloodstone’s feelings had clearly been hurt when he wasn’t allowed to come along on the mission, but if Garnet said it would be okay, it almost certainly would be. So now Steven could shift his focus back to the task at hand.

According to Garnet, there was a corrupt Gem in these woods. They haven’t had a mission like that in a while, honestly. It almost felt like a relief, now, although the underlying knowledge that this was a _Gem_ they were fighting, a Gem he couldn’t _heal_ – not yet, at least – still made Steven feel ill.

Pearl was just a few steps behind them, with Amethyst taking up the rear, so when Pearl stopped short, and Amethyst didn’t notice, there was a small collision. Pearl’s knees buckled, and she looked back with a glare.

“Amethyst!”

“Sor- _ry_. Why’d you stop?”

Pearl glanced upwards. “I heard something…” Garnet and Steven turned around to watch as she tried to find the sound again. She was still, and then – this time, they all heard it.

It was almost like a cooing sound, but deep and gravely; threatening. Pearl brought out her spear and pointed to the east, where the sound came from, and glanced in Garnet’s direction. Garnet nodded once, and the four Crystal Gems ran through the density of trees, in search of their target.

As they got closer, it was clear that the corrupt Gem was in a rage. They reached a spot where the forest was leveled; trees cut off at the base of the trunk. Shortly after this change in scenery began, Steven saw her: A purple, hairy behemoth, with huge, razor-sharp teeth. Her body was lumpy, and she carried it rather like a gorilla carried its body; the weight on her knuckles and her feet.

Amethyst made a strangled sound and stumbled back.

“What’s wrong?” Steven asked in alarm, but Amethyst just shook her head – and then it clicked. The corrupt Gem was an Amethyst, too.

Amethyst – their Amethyst – seemed frozen in place. Garnet looked from the corrupt Gem to her friend.

“It’s okay. You don’t need to.”

“N-no. I can fight!”

“Amethyst...” Steven began… But the corrupt Gem had heard them, and began to charge. Amethyst winced, but pulled out her whip, and Garnet and Steven readied their gauntlets and shield, respectively. There wasn’t time.

Pearl leapt into the air and threw her spear at the corrupt Gem, who snarled as the weapon lodged into her back. Amethyst yelped as if she’d been hit herself, but shook it off – physically – and moved in to attack. She drew her arm back, and the corrupt Gem tossed her head to get the hair out of her eyes. She stared at Amethyst with eyes that didn’t seem to really _see_ , and Amethyst stood completely still. The corrupt Gem lunged for her, and Garnet slid in front of Amethyst just in time, keeping the corrupt Gem at bay with her fists.

“She’s powerful!” Garnet grunted. The corrupt Gem pushed forward, and Garnet – as well as Amethyst, caught behind her – was sent flying back. The two Gems landed against a stump. Garnet winced in pain, and Amethyst still wasn’t moving.

Steven inhaled deeply once he realized he’d stopped breathing for a moment, there. He began to rush over to Garnet and Amethyst, but Garnet was quick to call out, “Cover Pearl! I’ve got Amethyst!”

Pearl! Her spear was still lodged in the corrupt Gem’s back, so she was unarmed. Steven ran back to her, bringing up a bubble around the two of them as the corrupt Gem pounced. She clawed furiously at the pink forcefield, and Steven looked back at Pearl as an idea struck him. “We can handle this if we fuse.”

“What?!” Pearl exclaimed, her voice shrill.

“It’s just us, now! We’ll have a better chance if we fuse. If we can form-”

“Steven, no! I-! I can’t…”

“Pearl, it’s okay, we can do this. I know I never could fuse with you all before, but I’ve fused with Amethyst since then. Come on, we have to hurry, I can’t keep this up!”

Pearl steeled herself. “Alright.” She held her hand out to Steven. “Alright, drop the bubble.” Steven complied, then immediately grabbed Pearl’s hand. She twirled him, then tossed him into the air and –

And Pearl faltered, only catching Steven by the back of his shirt at the last moment. Before Steven could ask what had happened, the corrupt Gem swung a fist in their direction. Steven flew through the air, taking the brunt of the hit, and tried to brace himself for impact. Then he felt hands on his upper arms, and he was lifted up into the air once again.

“Garnet,” he breathed, aching but grateful.

“We’ve got this, Steven. You and me.”

The boy nodded with a serious expression, and Garnet spun in a circle, her hands shifting down from Steven’s arms until their fingers were intertwined. The boy’s feet soared in the air, until Garnet pulled him close in a hug, and a familiar – though still foreign, in so many ways – feeling came over Steven as they fused.

“Oh wow!” The last bit of Steven’s externally separate consciousness noticed an English accent, and then he was... _They were_ … “Phantom Red Quartz is _back_! Whoo! My, but something feels different here… Oops! No time for that!” Phantom Red exclaimed as the corrupt Gem aimed a punch at them.

Out came Steven’s shield. The deep red fusion grabbed it and blocked the punch, then forced the corrupt Gem back. The next moment, Garnet’s gauntlets emerged and fused with the shield to create a single cestus that covered one of Phantom Red’s clear, crystalline hands. Rose thorns emerged from the back of the heavily-plated glove, and Phantom Red pulled their arm back before smashing the gloved fist against the corrupt Gem’s face. With their free hand, they dug Pearl’s spear in and then _yanked_ it out, and there was a pained cry before the corrupt Gem poofed.

Amethyst groaned, somehow making the sound seem relieved, and pushed herself up. She hobbled towards the gemstone that had fallen to the ground. “I got this one, Phantom Red,” she said, and she bubbled the gem, sending it back to the temple.

“Thank you, Amethyst, you’re a lamb,” Phantom Red sighed with a weary smile. “My, I haven’t had a workout like that in quite a long time... And it’s been just as long since I’ve seen you. Or Pearl, for that matter. But my, something really does feel different…”

“It’s Steven,” Pearl supplied, her voice quiet and lacking any emotion. “You’re Garnet and Steven, not Garnet and Rose Quartz.”

Phantom Red smiled slyly. “Pet, no matter who fused, _I_ am _me_ – the one and only Red Phantom Quartz,” she pointed out. Pearl’s brow furrowed and her hands clenched into fists at her side.

“I _know_. I just- _Nevermind_.”

“P, what’s with you? We won, and come on, it’s been _years_ since we’ve got to see Phantom Red!” Amethyst pointed out.

Internally, Phantom Red – the Steven part of them – flinched at the memory of how the attempt to form Rainbow Quartz had failed, and all at once, the fusion came tumbling apart, and two separate Crystal Gems fell to the ground. Garnet reached over and gave Steven a pat on the head.

“Steven… Thank you.”

“For what?”

“Trusting me.”

Steven smiled softly and nodded, but his attention quickly shifted to Pearl. “Pearl, are you okay?”

“I- I’m _fine_ ,” Pearl said, but it was forced.

“This is _fine_?” Amethyst snorted. “No way.”

“Amethyst, would you just-”

“You didn’t _want_ to form Rainbow Quartz,” Steven said slowly, as realization dawned on him.

Pearl and Amethyst stared at him. “Steven… How do you know that name?” Pearl asked after a moment’s silence passed.

“Oh, well… Dad showed me this video he made, you know, with you guys and Mom.”

Pearl squeezed her eyes shut. “I see.”

“I shouldn’t have tried to push you,” Steven went on. “I didn’t think about how it might make you miss her.”

Pearl said nothing. Garnet placed a hand on Steven’s shoulder. “Let’s go home.”

“But I –”

“Yes. Let’s go home,” Pearl agreed.

* * *

 

“You know, Ronal- Bloodstone is actually pretty funny,” Amethyst said around a mouthful of cardboard with some pizza cheese still stuck to it. “Like, not when he’s _trying_ to be, but when a human hasn’t slept for almost three weeks, they say some pretty weird stuff.”

“Mmm,” was all Pearl said in response. She leaned her elbow against the same counter Amethyst was sitting on, and held her chin in her hand.

It had been over two weeks since the fight with the corrupt Gem. Amethyst had bounced back from seeing a fellow Amethyst corrupted after a few trips with Garnet to check in on the bubbled gemstone. Pearl, however, had remained distant and prickly with her fellow Crystal Gems.

“P, c’mon, what’s _with_ you?”

Pearl cast Amethyst a heavy-lidded glance. “Do you even care?”

“Oh, come on, don’t pull that. You know I do.”

“…Fine,” Pearl sighed. “You… You’ve fused with Steven before. Is it… I mean… Is it like fusing with Rose?”

“Man, that’s what this is about?” Amethyst sighed. “I don’t know. I never fused with Rose; you know that.”

“But, I mean… When you’re Smoky Quartz… Can you feel her?”

Amethyst considered this for a moment, placing a curled index finger against her lip. “No,” she said, finally. “I mean, maybe in a way, but not, like… It was me and Steven, definitely. You know?”

“I guess so.”

“Pearl, you really need to chill about this. So you freaked about fusing with Steven – I mean… It makes sense. You loved Rose, but you’re finally starting to move on. Why would you want to remind yourself of all that?”

“It’s… Not that, exactly,” Pearl confessed.

“Then what –”

But just then, Ronaldo stepped into the temple by Garnet’s side, going on and on about something, and – judging by Garnet’s stiff posture – it was for the best to distract the young man and get him to leave her alone.

Amethyst had half-intended to bring the fusion topic up with Pearl when Ronaldo _finally_ left the temple, but it was that evening that she saw Pearl head up to Steven’s loft, and she figured that was the best way for this whole thing to get resolved.

“Steven, may I speak with you?”

“Of course, Pearl,” Steven said. He was clearly surprised to see Pearl talking to him – she’d been evasive for weeks – and it caused guilt to strike Pearl, and _hard_.

“Steven, I’m so sorry about not fusing with you. I… I almost thought I could do it.”

“It’s okay!” Steven rushed to assure her. “Look, I get it. You don’t want to think about those days. You and Mom… I mean, I don’t totally understand it, but I know you two were really important to each other. I know you were in love with her.”

Pearl nodded and swallowed hard to fight back the tears that were threatening to come up. “That’s not the problem, though. The problem is _me_.”

“What? No. Why do you think that?”

Pearl lifted a hand to touch Steven’s hair, as Garnet so often did, but let her hand fall. “Because it’s true. Steven, I’ve made so many mistakes, and Rainbow Quartz reminds me of all of them. The way I treated Greg for so long… I mean, you saw the video… And – And those times I looked at you and saw Rose… I don’t want to do that to you again. It’s not _fair_ to you.”

“Oh.” Steven paused, then patted the spot beside him on his bed. Pearl absent-mindedly sat. “Well, I appreciate that. I mean, honestly, I still get confused about that stuff – I mean, if I’m Mom, or she’s me, or… Something. So I don’t blame you for seeing her in me.”

“But you’re _you_ , Steven,” Pearl said, and Steven scooted closer to her and hugged her. “I think Rose is part of what makes you _you_ , but you’re… Entirely Steven. I can’t forget that.”

“I don’t think you will.”

“I’m scared I might.”

“Well… Maybe. But I guess that’s just another way you and the rest of Gems are more human than you think.”

“How so?”

“Because growing isn’t just moving forward. Sometimes, we fall back a little – but when we go forward again, it’s even farther than before.”

Pearl smiled down at him. “Incredible. How is it that you’re so wise?”

Steven considered this quite seriously before finally saying, “Well, Connie does let me borrow a lot of books.” Pearl laughed at that.

“Oh, Steven…”

**Author's Note:**

> The idea for Phantom Red's weapon, specifically, was shamelessly taken from [this awesome tumblr post](http://fantheoriesandfoodporn.tumblr.com/post/146488159759/rose-and-stevens-fusion-weapons).


End file.
